Berlin—“There is now no such thing as b-to-b,” Rick Segal, worldwide president-chief practice officer at GyroHSR, New York, told attendees at the B2B Marketing Europe conference in Berlin this week.

Segal, who leads the global b-to-b marketing agency, said that advances in technology have “rendered the practice of business-to-business marketing totally obsolete.”

“Work is no longer a place; it is a state of mind,” he said.

Noting the proliferation of handhand devices and advances in network communications, Segal said, “People in an at-work state of mind today are exposed to a constant, multipoint flow of communications from not just customers, suppliers and co-workers but also from family, friends, would-be friends and network members. They are not only engaged in considering brand messages while at work, they also champion them to their social networks.”

Segal announced that GyroHSR next year will launch a thought-leadership initiative called “The @Work State of Mind,” to study this trend and determine how to best accommodate customer requirements and behaviors in the consideration of, engagement with and advocacy of brands.